Saturday, August 23, 2008

FRON LEGAL BLOG WATCH

Female Lawyers Still Underrepresented at Firms

The number of female lawyers serving as partners at large firms continues to stagnate, according to a recent report from the American Bar Association, reports the Legal Times. Among the salient statistics: Although women account for about half of all law school graduates and 30 percent of all lawyers, they still represent only 17 percent of partners in private law firms.

Joan Williams, a co-director at the Project for Attorney Retention and one of the authors of the reports suggests that the disparity between men and women at the top results from gender bias in evaluation of lawyers. Lower evaluation scores mean that fewer females are promoted through the ranks.

But who's responsible for these lower ratings -- men or women? As I posted earlier this week, at least one study suggests that women sabotage each other in the workplace by evaluating other women more harshly. Do female law partners do the same to younger women? What do you think?